ventricular fibrillation

Just one second, one heartbeat. That’s what is needed for a new, noninvasive functional imaging technology, developed by a Washington University in St. Louis scientist, to record data for locating the source in the heart of a dangerous cardiac arrhythmia called ventricular tachycardia (VT). WUSTL researchers in biomedical engineering and medicine report in the Aug. 31, 2011, issue of Science Translational Medicine, that the technique would far more quickly find the source and type of VT, saving hours of mapping.  

Standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) involves alternating chest compressions with rescue breaths. But heart attack patients who receive CPR from bystanders fare better if their resuscitators skip the rescue breaths and do only chest compression, according to a study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.